Comments on: Everything that’s wrong with educational management, summed up in 3 Dilbert cartoons.

By: Greg's Blog - principal (le?) learning » Expertise …. and sucking

Greg's Blog - principal (le?) learning » Expertise …. and sucking — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:06:46 +0000

[...] like this! It applies to so many aspects of school, including as Doug intended my management. Equally it could be teachers ICT use/ability; kids classroom engagement [...]

By: foxburg

foxburg — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:15:00 +0000

it sounds to me as if what we have here is a good idea poorly implemented.

I agree, but personally think it is a poor idea poorly implemented

By: Karyn Romeis

Karyn Romeis — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:30:00 +0000

I know you probably disagree, but it sounds to me as if what we have here is a good idea poorly implemented.

By: foxburg

foxburg — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:50:00 +0000

“Hospitals are not run by doctors. They are run by administrators. Doctors practice medicine. Isn’t this perhaps a better option for schools, too? That teachers teach, leaving all the administration malarkey to an administrator?”

Sadly this is how we have it now, my experience is that the best heads are good administrators, who understand what teachers do, the problem we have is when heads are ‘fast tracked’ this results in heads with poor management skills and no understanding of teaching, having the authority to set targets and policy which is impractable, sadly the best cabdidates are not promoted to headships, just the abitious, willing to jump through the hoops

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:51:00 +0000

I was struck by the discussion over Easter at one of the conferences about Stepford Heads in Primary schools – very much the model desctibed by Ben’s grandpa. High on jargon, well aquainted with the seven models of dealing with an issue but low on any emotional intelligence or humanity in dealing with real life situations. I speak as someone who has just left a Deputy Head’s post and of course exhibited none of the traits described above!!!!

By: Karyn Romeis

Karyn Romeis — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:16:00 +0000

Well, Dougsdadbensgrandpa I think you can be justifiably proud of what your son is doing for his profession! I confess that I am not a teacher, so my observation comes from outside the field. But I can’t help wondering whether being a teacher and being in management are not perhaps two different skill sets.

Let’s look at an analogy: In commerce, one of the massive problems is in sales departments. People who are great at sales usually suck at people management. But time after time they put the best salesperson in as sales manager. I have seen this happen on so many occasions and it is such a bad idea.

In the US, as I understand it (and I may be wrong) being a school head is a different path from being a teacher. My heart aches when we see yet another gifted practitioner moving out of the classroom and into the office. And a school doesn’t have to be very large before the demands of managing a team and running the school become too great to allow that person any classroom time any more. With the potential that he has, Doug is likely to find himself in the same position… and what a loss that would be!

Hospitals are not run by doctors. They are run by administrators. Doctors practice medicine. Isn’t this perhaps a better option for schools, too? That teachers teach, leaving all the administration malarkey to an administrator?

Just wonderin’

By: foxburg

foxburg — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:09:00 +0000

I agree, as someone who came into teaching late (in my mid 30s) from Industry, I have been shocked by the poor management in schools, the majority have shown themselves to be amateurs out of their depth, there have been two exceptions, one exception, a wonderful man with a deep experience was ‘replaced’ when the schools amalgamated, by a more ‘Dynamic’ head, who managed in a very short space of time to drive down the morale of virtually all the staff,.
The most successful managers delegate responsiblity, and plan for the long term, I have seen very little of this, mainly a school lurched from one crisis to the next, with the staff ‘fire-fighting’ rather than planning and organising.

By: Dougsdadbensgrandpa

Dougsdadbensgrandpa — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:40:00 +0000

People of my age (nearly 60 – 38 years at the chalkface) are leaving teaching in droves! Reason – burn out and disillusionment. Education has become THE political football. however becomes the Minister for Education policies change to encompass pet theories that have been seen on ‘jollies’ abroad. Hence the National College for School Leadership (quango) was established in Nottingham, and this institution was charged with introducing, with enthusiastic government support and backing, the National Qualification for Headteachers. Any teacher can apply! They will be accepted if they jump through various hoops. Once qualified they can start applying for headships – and eventually are successful because of the national shortage of people putting themselves forward for headship posts. It has been shown that fast tracked teachers- remember that scheme – can become a headteacher within six years from becoming qualified! Experience and the notion of lead professional seems to have no value in 21st century education leadership.There has been the introduction of ‘superheads’ – they take on several schools, drive up results (based on % 5A*-C yardstick) then leave the teachers in the schools they manage drained, and ethos damaged and move onto the next ‘challenge/ and the next inflated six figure salary. They are totally removed from the real world. I would be very wary if I was to be called ‘expert’. I remember an ex colleague who retired many years ago who spelt expert as ‘X-spurt’ and explained thus:’X’ – an unknown quantity and’spurt’ – a drip under pressure!New breed senior management teams do just that manage – move things into the box which suits them. Leadership however, is inspiring a vision that can be shared by all, and all can contribute to the developing end result. Please lead colleagues Doug!

By: shefi

shefi — Tue, 12 May 2009 10:27:00 +0000

Doug, I wonder if you read this on the THE recently? Internet is fostering a 'want it now' culture among students The comments show that, as often happens these days, there are more intelligent and informed people who are NOT journalists and who are doing their own reading and thinking.

By: Karyn Romeis

Karyn Romeis — Sat, 09 May 2009 13:38:00 +0000

There are just so many points here from which to start a conversation, but I’ll pick up on just one point. That about technology not doing the presentation for you. One of the greatest regrets I have is that PowerPoint data files were ever named ‘presentations’. They are NOT presentations. They are the visual (and sometimes audiovisual) aids to a presentation, which is delivered by a living, breathing human being. Why do perfectly useful people turn themselves into voice-overs for PowerPoint slides? And what an insult so many of those slides are to the intelligence of the audience. Just dump the content of your presentation onto a series of slides in bullet point form and read them to your audience. That’ll do the trick. But, of course, we can always add a little zing and pizzazz with a few pie charts (as your Dilbert strip illustrates).

My own view is that these people could be doing so many other things. And yet, here they are, taking time out to hear what I have to say. They deserve cogent reasoning, illustrated – where appropriate – with relevant graphics and or images that help them to process the information or give them a mental hook to hang it on.

If I can’t take the time to put together a kick-ass presentation, why should they take time to attend it?